This page lists the sessions and links to content from past National Interdisciplinary Lookout Conferences, newest first.

NILC 2026

Second National Interdisciplinary Lookout Conference, University of Idaho Program (PDF)

Session recordings and abstracts from 2026 will be added here.

NILC 2025

First National Interdisciplinary Lookout Conference, University of Idaho Program (PDF)

Theme: The Past and Future of Fire Lookouts

The 2025 conference featured a series of panels, presentations, and lectures exploring various aspects of fire lookouts in the human environment. Its theme, The Past and Future of Fire Lookouts, focused on the history and the evolving role of fire lookout towers and related issues.

  1. Care and maintenance: the Ethics of Lookouts

    Chair: Michael Decker

    • Jenna Bruggerman, The 5S Organization System
    • Ben James, "Sunshine" AKA Filmmaking on Sundance Mountain
    • Billy Cooter and Cat House, Preserving Idaho's Fire Lookouts
    • Kevin Roach, Timeless Guardians: Human Fire Lookouts

  2. The Memories of Lookouts

    Chair: Gary Weber

    • Connor Reakes, The Study of a Typological Artefact
    • Don Patterson, Tracing Lookouts Past: Fieldwork and Fire in the River of No Return Wilderness
    • Clare O'Connel, St. Mary Peak Fire Lookout: A Successful Partnership

  3. Placement, Displacement: Re-negotiating the Places of Lookouts

    Chair: Jack Kredell

    • Simon Scott, The Unnatural Devolution
    • Jacob Riddle, Photogrammetry and Reflections on Resiliency
    • Michael Guerin, Red Hill Lookout: California's Most Unique Detection Station Historical, Architectural, and Cultural Context

  4. Re-enacting the Icons

    Chair: Hannah Green

    • Mark Wetherington, Overexposed: Social Media and Three Fingers Lookout
    • Brayden Jones, Wylies Peak: Legend and Successor
    • Nancy Hammond, How Mabel Gray Became the First (But Not the Only) Lookout

  5. Policies and Regulations of Fire-fighting: Lookouts and Politics

    Chair: Brandon Light w/ Gabriele Orlandi

    • Penny Morgan, Fire and Climate: Past, Present, and Future
    • Alyssa Kreikemeier, The Cerro Grande Wildfire
    • Emily Lane and Nick Koenig, Looking and Building for More Just Futures in the Climate Crisis at the Wildland Urban Interface

  6. Resistance, Resilience, Recovery: the Bones of Lookouts

    Chair: Andrea A. Dutto

    • Andrew Shearman, Echoes of Fire: Reimagining Lookouts as Sites of Memory and Reflection
    • Rick McClure, Planning and Partnership and Plenty of Patience: Historic Preservation and High Rock Lookout
    • Leif Haugen, Restoring Fire Lookouts: A Step-by-Step Approach

  7. How to Restore, Establish, and Maintain a Volunteer Lookout Program

    Chair: Bill Moore

    • Bill Moore, How to Restore, Establish, and Maintain a Volunteer Lookout Program

  8. Fire Lookouts and Research

    • Richard Holm, Fire Lookouts and Research

  9. Evolution of a Wilderness Lookout

    • Mark Moak, Evolution of a Wilderness Lookout